Hidetaka Miyazaki is known for his liminal, dystopian worlds. Ruined civilizations erected on the skeletons of bygone people, dotted with miserable miscreants who chuckle through gritted teeth at forlorn warriors facing insurmountable odds. Cycles repeat and old wounds reopen. There’s a thread through Demon’s Souls to Bloodborne to Elden Ring — a signature style. And then there’s feet. A lot of feet.
It’s become a running joke over the years that Miyazaki has a thing for toes. NPCs, bosses, nobody is exempt. The Maiden in Black walks around barefoot, Crossbreed Priscilla waits in the Painted World with her ravenous dogs out, and Malenia even has sculpted golden toes. It’s an enigma. But, finally, in an interview with TheGamer’s former editor-in-chief Kirk McKeand for The Guardian, Miyazaki addressed the rumors. And I can’t tell if the confusion is Miyazaki embodying the unreliable narrator of his games, or genuine bewilderment that the internet thinks he’s fascinated by women’s feet.
Unprompted, when asked about the recurring motif of hands throughout his games, Miyazaki said, “It’s not necessarily something I’m consistently aware of — maybe it’s something subconscious coming through. Take a look online and there’s a rumor that I have a bit of a thing for feet, but I’m not honestly sure where this comes from. I feel like I’m trying to depict some side of human nature or the human existence that is difficult to describe.”
McKeand notes that Miyazaki-directed games have featured at least six barefoot women, practically making him the Tarantino of the industry. But it doesn’t appear to be a deliberate fascination — an internal quota he sneakily gets FromSoftware designers to hit. ‘Yeah… but have we considered that this woman shouldn’t have boots on?’ There may even be something human about that physical connection and intimacy. Or maybe he just likes feet.
This is hardly the article to wax lyrical about the optimism found in despair that FromSoftware’s worlds leave us grasping for. The real takeaway is that Miyazaki has seen the memes. He knows we’re all joking about his loving feet every single time a cutscene pans just a little too far down and we see toes.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.thegamer.com/elden-ring-director-hidetaka-miyazaki-addresses-feet-rumors/
